Port Chicago is one of those places that you pass by often on your way to work but never stop to think about. After living in the San Francisco Bay Area for almost two decades, I decided to visit it for the first time last week. It is the site of a World War II munitions explosion that killed 320 people, mostly black sailors. The aftermath caused America to examine its racism and helped integrate the military.
During World War II, while white men fought in the front lines, women worked in factories and African-Americans got stuck with unglamorous jobs, such as loading munitions. Many black men from the South ended up joining the navy. Some were stationed in Port Chicago. Many were illiterate and could not even read the explosive warnings painted on the munitions. There was virtually no training and the heavy equipment was in various states of disrepair. Complaints were ignored.
In July 1944, a gargantuan explosion occurred at the port. Two 440-foot ships, sitting side-by-side, were being loaded with munitions delivered by railcars for the war in the Pacific. The explosion completely vaporized one of the ships. The other ship was thrown 500 yards away. Hotel windows in San Francisco, 35 miles away, cracked. Seismographs in Las Vegas detected the explosion. In fact, atomic scientists from New Mexico examined the carnage because they wanted to study what a small nuclear weapon was capable of destroying.
To add insult to injury, the black sailors were treated like second class citizens after the blast. Their white counterparts received 30-day leaves and were then assigned other duties. The black survivors received no leave and were immediately sent elsewhere to load more munitions. Black families who lost their sons and husbands received less in death benefits than the families of white sailors.
Ultimately, 50 black seamen refused to work under these conditions and mutinied. They were handed sentences of eight to fifteen years. This act of civil disobedience, both on the basis of civil rights and worker rights, helped bring about the integration of the military.
Editor’s Note: You can find out more about the aftermath of the Port Chicago disaster here.
Images source: Maxichamp
